Skills Difference

At the Massachusetts School of Law (MSLAW) we have believed from our inception that a law school should instruct students in legal theory AND teach students the professional skills they will need when they graduate. Over the past few years law schools have come under great scrutiny by students, graduates and the national media because they are charging exorbitant tuitions and not teaching students the skills they need to do the job when they graduate.

For example, the New York Times ran an article where they reported that “Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful, with classes that are often overstuffed with antiquated distinctions, like the variety of property law in post-feudal England. Professors are rewarded for chin-stroking scholarship, like law review articles with titles like “A Future Foretold: Neo-Aristotelian Praise of Postmodern Legal Theory.” The article went on to report that “The fundamental issue is that law schools are producing people who are not capable of being counselors,” says Jeffrey W. Carr, the general counsel of FMC Technologies, a Houston company that makes oil drilling equipment. “They are lawyers in the sense that they have law degrees, but they aren’t ready to be a provider of services.” (Emphasis added).

The national outcry to solve this problem in law schools is ongoing. MSLAW fixed this problem when we opened our doors 25 years ago.

At MSLAW we teach you the skills you need to be a “provider of services”. At MSLAW you will learn how to:

Analyze problems and courses of action, whether in business settings, legal settings, or elsewhere.

Use relevant social, political, economic and other “non-legal” facts and doctrines relevant to presenting or solving legal questions.

Speak articulately: in courtrooms, in meetings, at hearings, and to opponents.

Interview and counsel clients

Be sensitive to the needs, desires, and financial abilities of clients.

Ferret our facts relevant to client’s cases or problems.

Draft contracts, wills and trusts.

Analyze business and personal problems from a legal standpoint.

Plan legal courses of action for individuals, families and businesses.

Take Depositions.

Try cases, including examining and cross-examining witnesses, introducing evidence and arguing to jurors.

Arbitrate and Mediate disputes.

Drafting motions, trial memorandum and appellate briefs.

Recognize and respond appropriately to the ethical and moral problems that arise continually in law practice.

Behave professionally including acting with appropriate civility, politeness and promptness.

The reason why so many law schools now struggle with adapting their curriculum to the changing needs of their students is because the current law school model simply does not allow for it. Traditional law school faculty does not and cannot, under the current rules of ABA accreditation, practice law. So, it is impossible for those schools to teach skills across the curriculum the way MSLAW does. For more information our the MSLAW teaching difference visit www.mslaw.edu/teachingdifference.

Massachusetts School of Law's Mission

Massachusetts School of Law's mission is to provide an academically rigorous affordable legal education emphasizing ethics, advocacy, leadership, and professional skills. MSLAW provides an accessible and affordable legal education to tomorrow’s leaders in law, business, and technology who seek to contribute to their communities as advocates, lawyers, and leaders. Lawyers have substantial influence in our society and MSLAW prepares its graduates to use that power to help their clients and obtain the societal advancement that a law degree has traditionally provided.

To accomplish its mission, Massachusetts School of Law brings together a diverse group of scholars, judges, expert practitioners and other professionals to provide individuals from all backgrounds a rigorous, professionally advantageous, affordable legal education so that they can improve their lives and better serve their communities.

The Massachusetts School of Law does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, disability, source of income, or status as a Vietnam-era or disabled veteran admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities.

Massachusetts School of Law's Mission

Massachusetts School of Law's mission is to provide an academically rigorous affordable legal education emphasizing ethics, advocacy, leadership, and professional skills. MSLAW provides an accessible and affordable legal education to tomorrow’s leaders in law, business, and technology who seek to contribute to their communities as advocates, lawyers, and leaders. Lawyers have substantial influence in our society and MSLAW prepares its graduates to use that power to help their clients and obtain the societal advancement that a law degree has traditionally provided.

To accomplish its mission, Massachusetts School of Law brings together a diverse group of scholars, judges, expert practitioners and other professionals to provide individuals from all backgrounds a rigorous, professionally advantageous, affordable legal education so that they can improve their lives and better serve their communities.

The Massachusetts School of Law does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, disability, source of income, or status as a Vietnam-era or disabled veteran admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities.